Not having time to run to her room to retrieve her uniform, Rogue instead pulled out a spare that was kept in the medical wing. It was a simple black uniform with a gold-X across the torso, like the New Mutant uniforms, though this one lacked shoulder pads. It didn't matter though, Rogue had no time to be picky. Stripping of the hospital gown was such a relief.
Rogue looked over to Magneto to find him in full uniform, changed out of his slacks and shirt in a matter of minutes. She glared lightly in annoyance and envy. That benefit was just another perk to having omega level magnetism. Since Magneto made most of his clothes himself using metallic particles he simply had to focus and snap his fingers to re-arrange the particles into his uniform, minus the helmet.
Magneto noticed her glare of envy and smirked.
"To the Blackbird then my dear? Unless you'd like to stay behind?" He asked, knowing full well that would irritate her.
Rogue shoved him lightly on her way to the door. "Oh, hell no." She replied. "Come on, we don't want them leaving without us."
Magneto followed her down the hall into the hanger. "It would be irrelevant if they did as I could get us there, probably making better time than them." He pointed out. Rogue ignored him and proceeded to the hanger doors.
They found most of the X-Men gathered there. Professor X, Jean, Cyclops, Storm, Shadowcat, and Nightcrawler. Their few numbers made sense, Wolverine was still on "vacation" and Spyke had taken over as head of the New Mutants.
"What's the problem Prof.?" Rogue said as she joined Xavier and Cyclops.
Cyclops looked fairly surprised to see her, and kind of concerned. "Um, Rouge."
Rogue sighed, already knowing what he was going to ask. Cyclops opened his mouth again, prepared to ask her.
"Yes, I'm fine. And I'm sure about this."
Cyclops closed his mouth, once again surprised. If he was taken off guard by Rogue's reply to a question he hadn't asked Xavier certainly wasn't. He only gave a small smile before venturing his question.
"And is there any chance-"
"You can't talk me out of it." Rogue said.
Professor Xavier nodded, already knowing that would be her answer. "I have received a message from S.H.E.I.L.D. It would seem our Brotherhood adversaries are up to their old tricks of mayhem, destruction, and theft."
Glances were exchanged between Rogue and Magneto, both thinking something similar.
With no time to loose the X-Men boarded the jet and Cyclops fired up the engines. Rogue had almost forgotten how much she disliked flying(in a plane at least). Flying using her mutation was something totally different, and more pleasant compared to this. As the plane experienced some turbulence Rogue moved to grab the seat handle.
She squeezed it as the plane lost altitude for a moment and her stomach flipped.
"I hate planes." She remarked.
"We're almost there." Magneto reminded her. "Only another ten minutes."
Rogue nodded. "And what are we going to do once we get there?"
"We stop the Brotherhood of course." Magneto said, as though he already had decided.
"Or you could talk to your kids and try to get them to cool it."
Magneto gave Rogue a look of astonishment at her words. Either he thought it was a joke or Rogue had lost her mind. But still, Rogue was giving him a look that clearly read "I'm not kidding you can wipe the look of surprise off your face".
"I doubt they would listen to me at any rate." Magneto pointed out. "If anything Pietro would run like the coward he is."
Rogue sighed. "Yeah, okay point. Toad would probobly follow his lead. The only ones we really have to worry about is Avalanche and Wanda. They can be easily contained with a magnetic field."
"Agreed."
"S.H.E.I.L.D. wants to interrogate them afterwards." Rogue informed him.
Professor Xavier, who was sitting next to Magneto, shook his head. "Not a chance. Once we stop the Brotherhood we will be the first to question them. Before handing them over to S.H.E.I.L.D."
"I assume you want to handle the questioning?" Rogue asked Magneto.
"Correct." He answered her.
Listing in to this conversation was none other than Kitty Pryde. Who twisted herself around at the mention of Avalanche. She bit on her fingernails nervously, undoubtedly thinking of her occasional boyfriend.
"We're just going to hand them over to the S.H.E.I.L.D. goons? Just like that?" Kitty asked.
Professor Xavier nodded. "Kitty please understand we don't have much of a choice, not when the Brotherhood decides to break into a S.H.E.I.L.D. warehouse. Not only is it government property their destroying, but from what I've been told this particular warehouse holds deadly confiscated weapons. There is naturally a general concern for the public as well as the mutants in question."
Kitty sulked and turned back to staring out the window, having lost her argument.
"Are you planning on breaking them out afterwards?" Rogue asked her lover.
"Excuse me?"
Rogue rolled her eyes. "Your kids, Erik. Are you going to have them broken out of federal custody after we tie them up and interrogate them?"
"No, not this time." He replied. "I have had Pietro broken out in the past only because he did nothing to warrant being arrested that time."
"And he was working for you at the time." Rogue added.
Magneto appeared to bear no shame in that acknowledgment, and Rogue certainly wouldn't expect him to. It wasn't at all in his nature to exhibit shame or regret for his actions.
"In any case they need to learn the consequences of their actions." Magneto remarked. "Perhaps this time they will learn, from this day forward I will not be, how you say, 'bailing them out' anytime in the near future."
"They're on their own in other words." Rogue said as the plane touched down.
"Precisely." He confirmed as he unbuckled all the seat-belts in the plane and lowered the ramp.
Cyclops pushed his red X comm button on his wrist and ordered the rest of the X-Men to report in as Rogue scanned the area with her state of the art X-Men goggles. Infrared goggles of course. Squinting to see the color Rogue identified the environment and the situation easily enough.
"We have what looks like two hostages tied up in the center of the warehouse, two Brotherhood members on the eastern end, and then Toad up on the rafters. No sigh of the fourth Brotherhood member." Rogue told Cyclops through her comm.
"Okay you all heard Rogue. Storm and I are going to charge through the front." Cyclops said as the other members waited for orders.
"I shall be coming in through the roof." Magneto informed them.
Professor Xavier observed everything from the jet using his mind. He pushed his own comm button. "Everyone else will come in through the eastern and western sides. Be careful X-Men, the Brotherhood may very well have activated one of the numerous weapons."
"Copy." Rogue replied as she motioned to Kitty to join her. She then directed for Kurt to get on the other side of the warehouse. He nodded as confirmation and teleported away with Jean. Looking through her goggles again Rogue noticed no one but the two on the far end looked to be opening a crate. Rogue's eyes lowered in anticipation of what doomsday device they had discovered, if there was a time to act it was now.
"X-Men, move in on the Brotherhood."
As Kitty and Rogue raced to their side of the warehouse Rogue heard heard the metal roof being torn off, an optic blast from Cyclops, and a bamf from Kurt as he teleported himself and Jean in.
The two girls linked arms as they touched the wall, now they both were transparent and phased through easily.
Upon entering the first thing Rogue saw was Toad being tackled by Kurt. The disgusting mutant was sure to be irked at the fact that it was his rival, Kurt stopping him. Lance was surrounded by a glowing blue magnetic sphere, courtesy of Magneto.
Quickilver was standing next to Lance, his eyes locked on Magneto. The terror in the speedster's eyes was evident as he dropped the device he was holding and disappeared into a white blur. Jean put a halt to that with her powers, letting him float in the air. Acting quickly, pieces of metal were torn off the sides of the walls and forcefully wrapped around him, preventing any tornado activity like last time.
That was the first time heavy beeping echoed through the warehouse. All eyes turned to the spherical device Quicksilver had dropped. A timer was blinking on it, and read 0:15:00.
"Kitty!" Rogue shouted and pointed to it. "Phase."
Acting on impulse Shadowcat ran and lunged for the device. Only to be stopped by an aura of blue energy.
Rogue glanced inquisitively up at Magneto, who looked just as confused. The lights flickered above them, threateningly. One of the bulbs gave out and broke entirely. Then when crates and chairs began to shake, everything clicked.
"Wanda." Rogue said before her friends were tossed around the room as half of it encompassed the same blue aurora. A chain holding some the crates together came undone to smack Jean across her face, making her loose her concentration and drop Quicksilver.
Working quickly Rogue scanned the warehouse for any signs of Wanda. She didn't have very long before she was hit from behind with something. Rogue winced in pain and moved her hand to the back of her head to feel the gash. It was wet. Though she couldn't see properly Rogue could tell the color of the liquid on her hand was red.
'Damn' Rogue cursed inwardly to herself as her head pounded. It would definitely be back to the medical wing for this. And here she thought she was finished sitting around all day wearing those horrible hospital gowns.
Through her blurry vision Rogue could make out something else that was red, and walking around. She couldn't hear properly either by she was fairly certain the red figure was yelling up at Magneto. Kitty screamed in pain from across the warehouse as she was tossed once again.
Ignoring the throbbing pain she stood on her feat and charged at Wanda, who turned just in time to put a hand in defense up.
Rogue evaded it and aimed a kick for her abdomen. This time Wanda wasn't fast enough and groaned as Rogue made contact. Not stopping there Rogue aimed two more blows to incapacitate her, careful not to hurt her or cause too much damage.
Wanda clearly did not return the favor as she punched Rogue in her chest, making her wheeze for air as she struggled to catch her breath. Smiling very pleased with herself the Scarlet Witch tired to punch Rogue again, aimed at her throat this time.
Fortunately for her, Rogue caught her fist. Using what was left of her strength she used her other hand to grasp Wanda's elbow and twist it, careful not to break or sprain it, just enough to her back to bend.
A kick to Wanda's back pushed her to the ground as Rogue let go of her arm.
Rogue rubbed her head painfully as the beeping started again. She froze upon realizing that the noise was not in fact in her head. A few feet from her the device's beeping accelerated.
"Kitty!" She rasped. Eyes beginning to throb too, she was forced to close them. It seemed as though her neck felt wet now as well as the back of her head.
The beeping soon stopped as the footsteps got closer.
When Rogue did manage to open her eyes again Kitty was standing over the disarmed device that read 0:06:12.
A breath of relief escaped everyone in the warehouse.
Just as she felt herself ready to rest a canister surrounded by blue aurora hit Rogue's leg hard. Her knees buckled as she sunk down, using her arms to catch herself. Yep, defiantly back to the medical wing for at least another day.
When she opened her eyes she found that Magneto was holding Wanda by the throat squeezing angrily, murder in his eye. While his anger didn't come as any surprise she still did wish she could at the very least stop him before he did any serious damage.
As Rogue let her head fall she felt the liquid travel slowly down her back, head still throbbing.
The yelling ceased as Magneto threw Wanda across the room just like she had done to so many of the X-Men a few minutes ago. He didn't look to see where she landed as he came over to Rogue. He cupped the large gash on the side of her head.
He used his free hand to carefully sweep her legs out from under her, gently as he didn't know the extent of the damage. Rogue felt her back hit the cold concrete floor as men in blue S.H.E.I.L.D. uniforms rushed in with white kits.
"No, I will handle it." Magneto said as more men in uniforms surrounded her. "I am a trained physician. Hand me the gauze and Serax."
"Professor Xavier?" One of the men asked.
The distinct sound of a wheelchair approached. "Yes, Magneto is in fact. He trained in Israel, I witnessed his training myself. He is a skilled physician, do as he says."
Chinaluv: I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Christa4ever: Thanks for all your support, and I hope you update soon!
Guest: Thanks so much for your feedback!
Jahunta4974: Your input is, as always, appreciated and useful. Rogue's concern for Evan is something I want to work with a bit more, hopefully in later chapters. Hope you enjoyed this update!
1983Sarah: Your right, Rogue is just getting piled with problems. Maybe I will give her some chill time soon. Thanks for your feedback!